CPS says 10% of COVID cases have no symptoms

Collective Pre­vention Services (CPS) says that up to ten per cent of the current positive COVID-19 cases have shown no signs or symptoms.
CPS head and epidemiologist Eva Lista-de Weever provided an update on CPS’ preliminary find­ings on Tuesday afternoon.

As of Tuesday there were 76 ac­tive cases, two of which were hos­pitalised. The number of cases in home isolation had jumped from 68 to 73, and the number in quar­antine had dropped from 167 to 111.

According to Lista-de Weever, data analysis shows that this wave of COVID-19 cases at this stage is more prevalent among the younger demographic, in part due to the various clusters that CPS has identified during its source- and contact-tracing. A majority of the cases recorded were deemed to be close contacts of a confirmed case.

She also said the data show that at least 10 per cent of the cases presented no signs or symptoms. “While this is a small subset of our population, this is why persons need to adhere to the guidance of social dis­tancing of two metres and wearing a mask when social distancing is not possible,” she said. “These measures should also be practised even when signs and symp­toms are not present.”

So far, the number of hospitalised cases is sig­nificantly lower than expe­rienced with the first wave. “However, as cases con­tinued to increase daily we have to pay close attention to the healthcare capacity in general as well as that at SMMC [St. Maarten Medi­cal Center — Ed.],” she said. She said that so far very few of the cases recorded have reported recent trav­el. “At this moment a direct correlation cannot yet be made to link that resur­gence of cases with the eas­ing of our border restric­tions,” she said.

She reminded everyone to remain vigilant and stay at home if they are not feeling well. She thanked the com­munity for doing their part in keeping themselves and their families safe. “CPS as always will continue to keep the public aware and informed of any new devel­opments in our new cases,” she said.

Lista-de Weever thanked Dr. Raissa Tjon-Kon-Fat, on behalf of CPS, for step­ping into the role as epide­miologist and providing her leadership and infection control guidance. The doc­tor’s last day with CPS was July 31. Dr. Tjon-Kon-Fat will be returning to the Na­tional Institute for Public Health and the Environ­ment RIVM and the local public health department in Rotterdam and Dor­drecht in the Netherlands.

Lista-de Weever an­nounced that CPS has hired a full time epidemiologist who will begin their tenure in the coming weeks.
“CPS will continue to work with the RIVM to en­sure that CPS is supported with the necessary man­power to handle this wave of the outbreak,” Lista-de Weever said.

The Daily Herald.